


Secret Mourning

by Quiet_Shadow



Category: Final Fantasy IX
Genre: Background Character Death, Death, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Original Character Death(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-17
Updated: 2014-06-17
Packaged: 2018-02-05 01:35:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1800628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quiet_Shadow/pseuds/Quiet_Shadow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>People are crying a lot these days at Alexandria.<br/>Not in the open, of course, not in the streets if they can help it, for it is supposed to be a time of celebrations as Princess Garnet is ready to take the crown. But in the safety of one’s home? There is no such reserve...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Secret Mourning

**Author's Note:**

> This story resulted from a couple of personal reflexions while I was playing Final Fantasy IX. In this case, it was inspired by the scenes at the end of CD2 and the start of CD3. Queen Brahne dies, and the characters take one of the remaining ships to go back to Alexandria, whereas Dagger/Garnet put flowers on her (adoptive) mother’s tomb and prepare herself to become Queen. Sad, and predictable.
> 
> However… I noticed nobody ever spoke of the various Amazons you fought over the course of the story, of the ones who died when Bahamut destroyed their ships, or the ones who could have died at Cleyra or Lindblum, to say nothing of Blumecia. Speaking of Cleyra, better for Zidane and Co the people of Alexandria never learn their role in that story. Even assuming they didn’t kill the various soldiers coming by the trunk and just knocked them out, I find it personally doubtful they managed to evacuate before Odin destroyed the tree and everybody still inside. I also find it unlikely that some weren’t caught in Atomos’ attack on Lindblum; sure, we saw them using ships, and only Black Mage attacking Lindblum guards, but I find it likely some were in the streets as well…
> 
> Talking with the people in game, they seem happy enough with having a new Queen, and I guess some days/weeks must have passed in-game, but damn, the Amazons you fought must have had families, no? People waiting for them? Is it really normal nobody ever spoke of collateral damages or the Eidolons-induced deaths?
> 
> So, there; here’s a fic to try and see to that.

People are crying a lot these days at Alexandria.

Not in the open, of course, not in the streets if they can help it. But in the safety of one’s home? There is no such reserve.

The people lost their Queen, but a new one is already ready to sit on the throne. The town is getting ready for the festivities surrounding the coronation. One would be hard pressed to think something is wrong. After all, the war has ended; peace has come back to their land. Now isn’t a time for sadness, but for celebrations.

However, pretending the people are happy would be a lie.

The results of a war are never pretty to see. Whispers say that Blumecia is in ruin. That Cleyra has been burned down by mysterious, magical fire. That a third of Lindblum has been destroyed. And if Alexandria is still in one piece, physically speaking, its too has its own injuries to try and heal. In a lot of houses, black sheets have been hanged, curtains have been drawn to shut off the light, mourning clothes are on display.

“The Queen is dead. Long live the Queen.”

It’s what one says in such circumstances, is it no? One should not think of anything else.

But just how many soldiers have fallen with the woman who was once a great Queen? In a short lapse of time, Alexandria has lost a lot of its daughters; be they wives, mothers, sisters, cousins, fiancées, girlfriends, each and every single one saw her life come to an end on the battlefield.

Nobody, however, say it aloud.

It just isn’t done.

There are whispers, condolences exchanged in low voices between two cheers for the proclamations of the upcoming coronation of Queen Garnet.

Still, a casual observer will notice numerous faces have disappeared from the streets. There are fewer guards holding the doors of the town or the palace. Patrols are less frequent in the streets, be it day or night ( _and it’s a minor miracle the crime rate doesn’t skyrocket, really. But perhaps, even among thieves and criminals, there is something akin to honor and respect which forbids them to fully takes advantage of the situation._ )

One doesn’t speak openly about the dead, but their names remain on the tip of many tongues.

( _Little Anna, the daughter of Big Tom, the dock worker, has fallen at Cleyra, from one they heard. Sophia, one of the Main Place apothecary’s nieces, a pretty and vivacious young lady who wasn’t much older than Princess Garnet and who had just married her childhood sweetheart, has never come back from Lindblum. In the house of the Sterns family, there are five daughters missing; one died at Blumecia, the other four in Queen Brahne’s fateful expedition. They only have a young son left, now. Mathilda, whose brother works in the castle’s kitchen, died in unknown circumstances, though some clues point toward friendly fire, perhaps coming from one of these Black Mages Queen Brahne used. Oh, and Ellen, the youngest of the baker, who had just joined the army, and Clara, the wife of John the Miller, a couple so nice who had two small children, and Josepha, who used to work as a maid in an Inn at the edge of the town…_ )

There’s barely… not, there isn’t any street where a house isn’t draping itself in black. And, once the obligatory cheer for the coronation will have fallen, there’s a good chance black sheets and mortuary crown will be hanged. ( _“The Princess should set an example,” some whisper, expecting her to clad herself in dark colors and wait. “Let her the time,” whisper other. “Everybody is watching. We need a Queen. We first need to show we’re still strong before we show we’re weak…”_ )

Nobody knows for sure what Queen Brahne went to search for on the Outer Continent.

Nobody even know how many soldiers she took with her exactly, nor WHO ( _and that’s probably the worse…_ ). No letter was exchanged between the faraway troops and their families since the start of the Queen’s operations, when Blumecia was attacked. It’s a bit curious, but easily understandable with the war going on; nobody wanted the enemy to risk learning of further plans by the indiscretion of a random soldier.

It doesn’t mean the people don’t have a basic idea of what has been going one, or what happened to some of their daughters.

There had been a couple of official notices, send or given personally to families by General Beatrix ( _and, despite the pain, oh, how they were grateful to her, because at least she didn’t let them in the dark any longer_ ). A lot of these letters came in after Blumecia and Cleyra. Especially Cleyra.

Sometimes, but rarely, bodies have been brought back with the Aerocargos, kept in almost pristine condition through Ice spells, so they could be decently buried in the earth of their home country ( _Cory, the blacksmith’s son, has cursed the Queen when he had to bury his fiancée, a sweet lass he should have married a month later had she not died…_ ). In most cases, however… there’s nothing, no news and no body, just the pain and the tortuous thoughts about what befallen one’s loved ones. Are they still alive, unable to come back for injuries stop them from travelling? Are they dead and buried in some hole in the ground, forever far away from their families?

Letters and chappelle's ardentes are cruel things, but at least they let you know exactly what happened. A necessity of wars and disasters. And a disaster, it’s exactly what Alexandria’s army has known with Queen Brahne’s death.

The exact circumstances of her death have not been revealed so far, but everybody knows that move of the navy went down with her, after they were attacked by a gigantic monster.

There have been no bodies to recuperate, or almost none.

Princess Garnet came back to the castle with her mother’s body… and a dozen of dead Amazons in mostly one piece, to give them back to their families ( _and just how many people pressed to the castle and its chapel to see, in the hope it WASN’T their child/mother/sister/fiancée/aunt/cousin/friend who was laying lifeless on cold stone? And what to say to the small number of people who saw their worst fear realized?_ )

Rumors are worse. Some say there had been many more bodies which couldn’t be brought because there wasn’t enough place on the one boat left. Many bodies, which had been so hideously disfigured one couldn’t hope to identify them and which had to be buried in the ground of a country mostly unknown and almost unreachable (it’s horrible for the families, for one can always travel about everywhere on the Mist Continent, if they know how to plan their trip well, but the Outer Continent… no commoner could afford it). Lot of young girls are listed as MIA, far too many for anyone’s taste. ( _Queen Brahne left with a dozen of vessels at the very least, plus a few smaller ones; a single one came back, bearing the Princess and a strange crew of ‘friends’ of her, as well as three surviving Amazons, the only three left alive after whatever happened… happened. And they don’t talk, not yet._ )

One can’t even know who was onboard of the various ships ( _well, aside of the Red Rose, for the crew was almost always the same_ ). Queen Brahne drafted a lot of soldiers for her journey, lot of troops which weren’t part of the Navy to begin with.

No equipage list had been made… or found in the wrecks. And nobody had had real news of the troops left in Lindblum yet ( _and they would be the ones who’d know; they helped prepare the ships, saw the departure of their sisters-in-arms. They would know who left, who came back from other invaded areas, who stayed, who was injured, who chose to desert, where everybody is…_ )

Perhaps they even tried to say it all in letters when peace was proclaimed. But the MogPost isn’t working so well lately, letters are few and far in between, good news and bad news arriving late. ( _Old woman Martha is so happy now that she has received a letter from her daughter, who’s announcing she’s coming back as soon as she can. Herman, the weaver, smile openly in the streets since he knows his sister is well and that she’s coming back… eventually; but first, she thinks she’s going to stay a bit in Lindblum to help reconstruct the town, for she almost finished her time in the army and she isn’t sure she wants to come back to Alexandria for a while. Eh, at the very least, he knows she’s alright. Doctor Gerhard is moody; his niece is alive, sure, but she lost a leg. She’s alive, but she’ll never dance anymore. Poor handyman Fred has red eyes; his cousin and one of his nieces will never come back…_ )

With the Mist having vanished, the soldiers have to come back by feet. It’ll take time before they’re all back, from a week to a month, depending on their health and where they were stationed ( _as well, they have to find food, organize the remaining groups, and fight the monsters along the way…_ )

Until they’re back… one will not know for sure just how much Alexandria suffered.

General Beatrix still comes and gives the official letters to whoever she can, once she knows for sure who fell. Not many. Not often. But she still does when she has time to spare, for the coronation preparations take most of her time, and she still has to make sure Princess Garnet is well protected. Nobody blame the General, ( _who would have thought the Queen would arrest her, push her away, she, the great General, the best swordwoman of the kingdom, her best soldier? She just left her prison, she doesn’t know much more than the people on a lot of matters_ ), and nobody blame the Princess ( _she’s in mourning, and she isn’t the one who decided of this war, after all_ ). Captain Steiner? Ah ! Though loyal to a fault, he was never on the known about the Queen’s plans, and he only came back to Alexandria recently, after accompanying and protecting the Princess during a journey of her own.

One can only wait. Wait and hope. Hope someone will finally answer them, once the dust has settled. Hope that someday, their daughter/wife/friend/cousin/aunt/fiancée/girlfriend/niece will appear at the door, tired but alive.

Life isn’t as easy as it seems at first glance. People are pained. People are afraid for their loved ones. Alexandria just turns its gazes toward the castle, decorate the town, put garlands in the streets, distribute gils to street kids. Alexandria smiles to Treno’s Noble visitors, who come for the Coronation. Alexandria hides away its pain, temporarily stops its tears from falling, and hopes the Amazons will be back soon.

Alexandria tries to take on the world. Alexandria tries to appear stronger than its feels. Alexandria shouts in a same voice.

“The Queen is dead! Long live the Queen…”

**End**


End file.
